To all the recorder friends of Kim Katulka Morrison, I regret to inform you that Kim lost her battle with cancer and passed away early this morning at home with her family near her. I have no detailed information at this time other than there will be no visitation, but there will be a memorial service planned for tentatively March 26 (when she would have been 38).

Please join with me in praying for her husband, Ryan, and her family as they go through this period of grief and to remember the joy that Kim gave to all whose lives she touched.

Members of both the Chicago and West Suburban chapters of the American Recorder Society and other friends of early music lost a fine musician and dear friend in Kim Katulka Morrison, who died of breast cancer on Wednesday, February 8 at her home in suburban Lyons. She had been ill for 14 months, and had suffered a great deal in the last few months before her death, but chose to look to the future rather than complain. Kim and her husband Ryan Morrison had been married for 2½ months.

Kim was born in Chicago on March 26, 1966. She was a director of the Oak Park Recorder Society and helped to found and direct both the Masqued Phoenix Consort and Phoenix Camarata. She served on the board of the Oak Park Recorder School, which organizes the Early Music Festival in Whitewater, Wisconsin, and also organized the recorder group that played in the Renaissance Faire.

Kim played with the Lincolnwood Symphony and Ars Musica, and regularly played at madrigal dinners and at the Oak Park Festival Theater summer Shakespeare performances. She was a versatile performer, equally at home with the recorder, gamba, harp, and other early instruments.

Kim is survived by her husband Ryan Morrison, her parents Ralph and Patricia Koscielniak, and Ryan’s parents Fred and Brenda Richard.

“I want you all to know that Kim and I love you all very much,” Ryan says. “We were and continue to be so blessed by all of the thoughts and prayers coming from across the globe. I truly believed this sustained her will to fight on and on as long as she could. She fought this ugly disease all the way through, and when I brought her home from the hospital on Monday night, she finally decided that she could go to God on Wednesday morning and get her eternal rest.

“Again, I just want to thank you for all your prayers, care, comfort and support through this enduring trial. I'm not asking the ‘why’ questions so much at this point, and I've got so many things to sort out in the coming weeks, months and years, but it will all be at a pace of day at a time. I suspect each 7:30 AM will be greeted with much grief and tears for a while, but I do know that I'm just grateful to have known, been a part of, celebrated marriage with, and uniquely loved such a spiritual, musical, intellectual and caring soul that is Kimberly Morrison. I'm sure that hundreds of people feel the same way today.”

A memorial service is planned for Saturday, April 29 at 2 PM at the Riverside Presbyterian Church in Riverside, Illinois (see www.dupagecremations.com). Ryan asks that donations be made instead of flowers to the Cardinal Bernadin Cancer Center of Loyola University Health Systems in suburban Maywood.

[reprinted by permission from the March 2006 issue of the Recorder Reporter, the monthly newsletter of the Chicago Chapter American Recorder Society]

This is a great tribute and I'm grateful and thankful the Tribune published this story.

I also want to remind you all that on Saturday, April 29th at 2:00pm we are going to have a 'Celebration Of Life' memorial for Kim at Riverside Presbyterian Church in Riverside [116 Barrypoint Road Riverside, Illinois]. You are most certainly invited and it will be an informal event. In addition to prayer and reflections on Kim's life, we are planning to have several musical ensembles performing, and will have a brief and casual reception afterwards at the church.

Tomorrow will be eight weeks since Kim has passed and I want to thank you all again for your continued support. Each day that has passed has been, on the whole, a better day than the day before. There are still moments, sometimes entire days, that are very difficult but I am working through it. I appreciate all your love and concern through this life transition.